Bitch Media - unileverhttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/363/0
enWhat Sexist Crap Would You Do For a Klondike Bar? http://bitchmagazine.org/post/what-would-you-do-for-a-klondike-bar
<p>Klondike rolled out a new ad campaign last week called "<a href="http://www.klondikebar.com/#"target="_blank">5 Seconds to Glory</a>." The premise: You must complete a five-second challenge in order to get your hands on a Klondike Bar (a square of chocolate-covered ice cream). Why you can't just bypass the challenge and go straight to the bar itself is beyond me, but the real kicker here is the misogynistic, homophobic challenges Klondike presents. </p>
<p>Behold:</p>
<p>A man must listen to his wife for FIVE WHOLE SECONDS before he is rewarded!</p>
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OMG two men have to HOLD HANDS for five seconds!</p>
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Now we can only assume that Klondike is targeting straight men with this campaign (I doubt many LGBTQ folks or straight women are digging these "challenges") but even so, they are remarkably sexist and homophobic. To state the obvious, Klondike tells you the viewer (a white, straight man of course) that the acts of listening to your spouse and holding hands with another man are so difficult and distasteful that you should not have to do them for more than five seconds, and that you should be rewarded for your considerable efforts with an ice cream treat. Oh, and because that wasn't enough to drive the sexist point home, once your time is up you'll also be literally showered with confetti by scantily clad women. You know, because you worked so hard for five seconds doing the unthinkable. Poor baby! </p>
<p>Of course this particular brand of <a href="/post/offensive-commercials-miller-lite-showdown"target="_blank">masculinity-at-all-costs</a> sexism is nothing new in commercials, but I am especially bugged by this campaign because WTF does it have to do with ice cream bars!? The notion of this "5 seconds" challenge makes no sense to me (seriously, just eat the Klondike Bar), and homophobia and misogyny do not belong in the freezer next to delicious ice cream. What could be less gendered than ice cream? Its tastiness should be uniting us, not dividing us!</p>
<p>Something I did not previously realize but am now completely unsurprised to learn is that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/klondike-rewards-man-briefly-listening-wife-131117"target="_blank">Klondike is owned by Unilever.</a> You know, the parent company that also owns <a href="/post/mad-world-the-axe-effect"target="_blank">Axe Body Spray</a> and <a href="/post/mad-world-dove-deodorant-is-just-for-pretty-babies"target="_blank">Dove</a>. I guess sexist commercials run in the family.</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/what-would-you-do-for-a-klondike-bar#commentscommercialsKlondikeunileverSocial CommentaryWed, 04 May 2011 20:34:07 +0000Kelsey Wallace10150 at http://bitchmagazine.orgFrom "The Crap In Products You Didn't Know About" Filehttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/from-quotthe-crap-in-products-you-didn039t-know-aboutquot-file
<p><span><span><br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The fact that unregulated bioaccumulators like lead and mercury are added to cosmetics is hardly a new story to Bitch Readers.<span> Here's another one. </span>Unilever was using an oil called "squalene" in many of its Ponds and Dove products. Squalene can either be made from rice and wheat or from dead sea shark livers.<span> </span>Guess what?<span> </span>Unilever apparently preferred the shark squeezins.<span> </span>This week, the company, under pressure from activists, announced it would cease this practice.<span> </span>Not that it was illegal or anything.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><span> </span></span></p>
<p><span>From <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ewg.org/" rel="nofollow">Environmental Working Group's</a> Enviroblog:</span><span> </span><span><em>"But what remains disturbing is the fact that, either way, Unilever's choices are in full compliance with federal cosmetic standards, which allow companies to use ingredients synthesized from, well, anything really -- including animal species collapsing globally in numbers, or petroleum products, or mining industry products --with no requirement that health or the environment be considered."</em></span><span> </span><span>Read the full story <a target="_blank" href="http://www.enviroblog.org/2008/02/unilever-takes-a-bite-out-of-y-1.htm" rel="nofollow">here</a>.<span> </span>And read the labels on all your beauty products.</span><span> </span><span>EWG has a fantastic <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com" rel="nofollow">Cosmetics Database</a> here where you can check out the ingredients in a ton of lotions, makeup products, shampoo and more.<span> </span></span></p></span></span></p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/from-quotthe-crap-in-products-you-didn039t-know-aboutquot-file#commentscrap in products you didn't know aboutdeep sea sharksdoveewgpondsskin deepsqualeneunileverLove / ShoveThu, 14 Feb 2008 17:50:45 +0000Anna Breshears263 at http://bitchmagazine.org